


One-to-one work interview (FFXIVWrite2020 Day 03 - Muster)

by Ivelia



Series: FFXIV Write 2020 [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Gen, Patch 5.3: Reflections in Crystal Spoilers, Tumblr: FFXIVwrite2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:21:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26287147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ivelia/pseuds/Ivelia
Summary: Part of my attempt for #FFXIVWrite2020 - September 3 (Day 3 - Muster)A certain new adventurer is experiencing performance anxiety.Spoilers for Patch 5.3, please read at your own discretion!
Series: FFXIV Write 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906951
Kudos: 3





	One-to-one work interview (FFXIVWrite2020 Day 03 - Muster)

\- "Ah~! Nothing like a good battle to open the appetite! Oi, Alphinaud, you're on kitchen duty today, since I had a higher kill count than you!"

\- "Eh? But I was the healer...!"

The common area of the Rising Stones instantly felt more alive as the boisterous party of four came back from their mission. They had taken up a request of the Revenant's Toll Adventurer Guild to cull a pack of dangerous beasts whose den was menacing a nearby travelling route, and of course, with none other than the vaunted warrior of Light in their party, it had been a _cakewalk_.

Even if she couldn't go hard at it as hard as she would, compared to her usual dungeon raiding work, where she was paired with trained-to-kill professional sell-swords, it felt nicer to do it with friends she actually cared about. _You got my back, I got yours_ was a more pleasant thought to keep on the back of your mind when fighting than her customary _Will this group attempt to stab me in the back to get a bigger share of the recompense?_ It was also a more relaxing pace... As relaxing as _revelling in the massacre of your enemies_ could be, anyway. At least, she was able to let trusted companions handle essential tasks such as drawing the attention of the monsters or granting succor to the party, while for once, she was free to hack, stab or burn to ashes anything standing in their way. And everyone involved seemed to be happy to have gained some more practical experience out of this... Except for a red-haired certain someone spacing out in the corner. As the rowdy twins left, discussing heatedly about who should be in charge of the day's meal, she went on to check on the newest addition to the Scions' roster:

\- "Is aught amiss, Raha?" He almost reacted as if she had stepped on his proverbial tail, yet meekly attempted to awkwardly deny:

\- "Uh, Oh, nothing, I'm fine..."

\- "Really now?" She looked down at him intently over the cold, thin frames of her glasses, arms crossed, almost intimidating. He relented under the pressure:

\- "Urgh... How did you know?" She passed her hand above the side of her head, smirking. He imitated her movement, perplexed, and his eyes opened wide in realisation as his hand caught on his own ears. She taunted:

\- "You will need to come back in an actual millennia if you intend to fool me. Or maybe you should start wearing a hood again, or invest in a hat"

\- "Ah!... You found me out, I guess." She looked at him encouragingly, as if to coax him into speaking his mind. He ended up spilling the beans: "It's like this... It's a bit hard to adapt to being a normal, youthful adventurer, so... I feel like I'm holding everyone back. Take Alisaie for example, while we were fighting, she kept attracting more and more monsters to the party... In the end, I could barely hold on, and I felt like Alphinaud had to work way more to compensate for my shortcomings, and I had to let you deal with a sizeable part of the pack on your own as well." He sighed, vexed by his own perceived failure. Could it be that, in the end, he truly wasn't suited to a life of adventure, and he should return to being just an ordinary historian?

\- "Ah, that..." She felt a bit guilty, as her unusual bout of _no holding back, destroy everything_ frenzy might have ignited the younger Elezen girl's competitive streak. She coughed nervously. "Don't let it bother you, she's always like this. I'm pretty sure you didn't bother her at all." She remembered how _enthusiastic_ the more active of the Leveilleur twins had been at the idea of _training the newbie_ and she felt sorry for him, thinking about how, in a short while, he would probably be hoping that Alisaie would never want to acknowledge his existence again.

\- "You really think so...?" She nodded encouragingly, and he sighed again, of relief this time. "Thank the Twelve, then!" He laughed nervously, admitting "It's a bit intimidating to work with everyone. I mean, to me, you guys are the Scions of Light who fought to save the world for future generations..." She stopped his trail of thoughts:

\- "We might have been legends in your past, but here, _now_ , we are nothing but regular people, trying to do what's right to them. Imagine how you'd feel if I were to treat you as _the revered Crystal Exarch_ forever..." He visibly cringed at the thought. "See? Not fun at all. And you don't have to play a role to fit in with us; you are already one of us too now, too. Our friend. You can just be yourself." His ears perked happily at this. It would be a bit difficult to find where to stand and behave in a natural way with everyone, but it would surely come with the passage of time. Just like he had "attuned" to his own present body, the romanced, larger-than-life historical descriptions that were the only vision he had of his fellow Sharlayan students would "attune" to their present personalities as well. After all, they had been fairly close back then, and their feats had not been too exaggerated in his past future... Except for that one person, standing in front of him.

\- "And you, are you yourself right now?"

She wasn't expecting this question. Her own eyes snapped to his crimson orbs, and she could see, beneath the veneer of a bubbly young man, the centuries of experience of the one that stood as the shiny beacon of hope for an entire world, and a hint of genuine concern. They stayed locked in this somewhat tense stare down for a while, until she suddenly extended her hand to lightly flicked his head, berating:

\- "Tch. You shitty old man-" He ducked his head, panicked at his own tactless question:

\- "I'm so sorry, that was rude of me to ask that-" She cut him:

\- "Nah, nah, you're totally right... But you don't have to hurt people with the truth like _that._ " She removed her glasses, and started massaging her eyes, conveniently hiding her expression with her hand. "I guess only true friends can call out each other on their bullshit, eh. You're getting the hang of this quite fast." Her voice had the smallest hint of a strange vibrato as she talked. "I should practice what I'm preaching, but... it's just _so_ hard, isn't it?" She put her glassed back on, and returned to the impassive, unwavering, almost unfeeling hero. "Just don't ask that in public next time, please." She had an image to maintain, after all. He nodded his acquiescence. "Good. Let's do our best, then." He returned her warm smile:

\- "Yeah. Let's do our best."

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt for day 3 is "Muster" - I picked both the meaning of this word in expressions such as passing muster [critical examination] and mustering [gathering] courage.  
> The title comes from that thing we have at my workplace, where each employee sometime have private one-to-one meetings with their direct manager where they can discuss their own performance (or even their manager's) and air concerns xD


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